An Indian national working in the UAE has been sacked by his company for allegedly sharing Islamophobic posts on Facebook related to the coronavirus pandemic, in yet another such case within weeks, according to a media report.
Bala Krishna Nakka from Hyderabad, working as Chief Accountant at Dubai’s Moro Hub Data Solutions Company, was sacked after his Facebook went viral, evoking widespread condemnation, the Gulf News reported.
His posts triggered demands both on Facebook and Twitter for action against him. In a quick response, the company announced that the person was being sacked from his job, as it had zero tolerance towards hate propaganda.
“At Moro, we take a zero tolerance attitude to material that is or may be deemed Islamophoic or hate speech. The tweets that we have been alerted to do not, in any way, reflect Moro’s brand values,” the company said in a statement.
Nakka joins a growing list of Indian expats who have landed in trouble for alleged Islamophobic social media messages in recent days.
Rakesh B Kitturmath, who worked as a team leader at Emrill Services, an integrated facilities management (FM) headquartered in Dubai, was sacked on Thursday after his post sparked an outrage on social media, the Gulf News reported.
Earlier, Abu Dhabi resident Mitesh Udeshi was sacked for posting a cartoon mocking Islam on his Facebook page while a police complaint was filed against Sameer Bhandari of Future Vision Events & Weddings’ in Dubai after he asked a Muslim job seeker from India to go back to Pakistan. The UAE outlaws all religious or racial discrimination under a legislation passed in 2015.
The anti-discrimination/anti-hatred law prohibits all acts “that stoke religious hatred and/or which insult religion through any form of expression, be it speech or the written word, books, pamphlets or via online media.”